COMPOUND FACTIONS -- NielsenConnect, the new compound brand name launched late last year by the Nielsen Co., and headed by former Madison Avenue "iconoclast" Jon Mandel, has "heard from clients, agencies and media sellers about being stodgy and slow to respond to changes in the marketplace," Nielsen-owned trade magazine Mediaweek reported this week.

WHY THE FUTURE DOESN'T NEED THE RIFF -- Never mind the fact that the past didn't have much use for us either; our long national nightmare is finally over. We've found a way to generate "Real Media Riffs" on a regular and sustainable basis.

KEEPING TAB -- When people look back on Joe Philport's long and winding career in the media research business, they will likely notice two things: 1) He has been involved in some pretty high-profile and usually very innovative endeavors; and 2) He usually wasn't with them very long.

He was part of the team at AGB that tried to launch the first people meter TV ratings system in the U.

THE MAGICAL NUMBER SEVEN, PLUS OR MINUS THEE - Some people consider seven to be a lucky number, but it hasn't always proven that way for David Verklin. At least not if you're Renetta McCann, the global chief of Starcom MediaVest Group, who used that numeric to demonstrate just how unlucky Verklin's Carat has been in head-to-head pitches against the Publicis unit.

NIELSEN 101 -- In the days since Nielsen Media Research began measuring TV viewing of students living on college campuses, some surprising patterns have emerged. Cautioning that the data is preliminary and may not be "projectable," a source deep inside the TV ratings giant tells The Riff that contrary to conventional beliefs that the 18- to 24-year-old crowd are light users of the medium, the college students in Nielsen's new "extended home sample" are watching disproportionate amounts of television.